My Adventurous Flight into Day #1

Well...they say you learn something new every day...today, my something new is I do NOT like flying in air planes!!!  We got to Walsh Saturday morning (I guess that was yesterday, however I havent slept yet so my days are slightly confused) at 7:30am.  We said our goodbyes, and headed over to the Akron/Canton airport for our flight to Atlanta that left at 10:30am.  This first flight was pretty short, only a little over an hour, so you'd think-easy flight! Right? WRONG.  I was first surprised with the fact that I was not going to be sitting next to my little sister, in fact, I wasn't sitting by anyone from our group.  Not very happy since this was basically my first time flying.  I step into the plane, and instead of seeing a nice and comfortable spacious plane that I see all the time in the movies, I see what I thought was very similar to a school bus I would ride to a 2nd grade field trip to the apple orchard.  I was beginning to feel even more uneasy about this ride.  Next, things began to look up, the seat next to me was empty and everyone was boarded the plane.  Right when those words crossed my head, I look up, and there she is.  The woman, carrying large bags (one being a kentucky fried chicken cooler bag), wearing a full blown orange track suit, coming my way.  I knew right then, this was not going to be my day.
         A little bit into the flight I began talking to a couple of guys sitting in the seats next on the other side of the aisle.  The plane takes off, and one of the guy begins to freak out a little bit.  He proceeds to tell me horror story after horror story of plane rides...not okay.  I politely said, "these are things you should tell me once we have safely landed, not when we take off."  I begin my hail mary's and then the nice flight attendant woman takes a stroll down the aisle with her cart of goodies.  My partner (of courseeee!) was in the mood for a drink and cookies!! In which she chomped on as loud as possible and made sure I heard every slurp of that drink.  I was on the verge of a breakdown.
      The first flight ended and we got out and then had a 5 hour layover at the Atlanta airport.  I immediately went to the caribou coffee to get me my grande black coffee...I take it back to our seats and am reading my book and take a sip of my delicious coffee, only to find that it has spilled all over the front of me because of a faulty cup...of course, only me!  We finally board the plane and take off from Atlanta to Rome ( I made sure Alyson and I got our seats changed so we could sit next to each other on this 10 hour flight ).  Take off was a bit smoother this time, and everything was going well.  The seats barely went back so finding a comfortable position to lay was close to impossible.  I was  half asleep in the middle of the night when all of a sudden the plane starts shaking and the captain gets on the speaker and tells us to fasten our seatbelts.  I wake up in a panic and grab Alyson's arm, my heart is pounding out of my chest, I look over at Alyson and she barely opens her eyes and tells me it's "not a big deal"...I reached in my bag, got out my rosary, and got those hail mary's outta me so fast.
      I am now safe and sound in our home for the next two months in Castel Gondolfo, absolutely beautiful.  I attached a picture of the view we get from the building.  It is now 2:08 pm and I am going on 5 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, not ideal.  We have orientation and then proceed to go into town and take a stroll and then have church at 6.  Long day, tonight will be one heck of a sleep.

Miss you all xoxo